Since I was doing this I thought I would post a thread with photo's of doing exactly this...

If your damper is simply missing the flapper or only the flapper is damaged you can replace these fairly easy (If its missing I suggest you look for it up on the rear shelf inside the chimney first as that is the most common place to store it). In my case I wanted the flapper and the entire damper housing out and gone in order that I could achieve a full 6" stove pipe and strait up into my Terra Cotta chimney liner

I chose NOT to listen to these so called experts telling me a stainless liner is better (its NOT and I like being able to convert back to a fireplace easy as pie anytime). I have seen 100+ year old Terra Cotta liners still in use today and maybe if I ever see a stainless liner last more then 15 years with a coal stove I'd be surprised.

I chose not to listen to these so called experts telling me "you cannot remove a mortared in Damper... I decided to just do it all myself and pay nothing (the only thing im going to be buying is the tile to reface the fireplace, everything else is either used or stuff i have laying around).

The key with removing these buggers is to try to NOT NOT NOT disturb the Lintel (usually angle iron or metal piece that spans underneath the bricks above the fireplace opening), If your lucky enough to have a stone fireplace or such custom work that they used the "Keystone" method then you want to be careful not to upset that archway because its load bearing.

Other then that its pretty simple as these photo's show... The trick is to attack the mortar by wedging then prying.

1/4 inch thick steal tube will be welded at corners and will protrude 1/2 inch beyond the surface of the brick then painted brown and will serve as the "trim tile" and give 3 dimensional appearance to the new re-face! The two outer sides of brick with get 2x pieces painted the same brown and also protrude 1/2 from face so I only need to buy field tile to then fill up the middle (save $200 in trim tile!)

Ok so tile finally came (Hand made arts & crafts tile for short money!)... I did not expect such variations on thickness and edges, etc. but beggars cant be choosers.... here it is guys (not a finished product yet as I still need to wipe the haze tomorrow and put the trim back on the mantel and edges).

Don't laugh to hard.... I never said I was an expert at laying tile LOLBear in mind my 404 is going to PERFECTLY fit in that opening and slide in about 2-3" beyond the new steel Lintel I installed and the paint matches the stove as shown on my other thread here Repaint & Tune up Crane Model 404 so we need to visualize it in place (im open to any suggestions about anything)

franco b wrote:I think it looks fine and with the stove in place, it will be outstanding.

good to hear I paid a total of $260 for all the tile, steel, grout, mortar, hardiboard So.... it is what it is and its the best I could with what I had The house will be ready with a brand new coal stove this season (not sure if I'll be their, but at least I'll have it done)

OK, starting to get cold... in goes the new blocker plate (1 piece 1/2" durarock cemented & sealed in place)... 5' of stovepipe will get me to reach into the terra cotta liner above and this thing is going to draw like a mofu The damper in this thing was a mess (their was no saving it) so it had to be removed in order to make this fireplace ideal for a stove set up (Fireplaces are useless anyways unless they have built in heatalators and even then its questionable). Total cost for mortar, pipe, durarock and ripping out old rusty useless damper = $58.00! will last forever (just need to slip out pipe and replace as needed). Hope this helps someone someday who is dizzy from the $2500.00 quotes of a fireplace shop